Public Assessment

Informativeness

The HKDSE qualification and the associated assessment and examinations system provides useful information to all parties. Firstly, it provides feedback to students on their performance and to teachers and schools on the quality of the teaching provided. Secondly, it communicates to parents, tertiary institutions, employers and the public at large what students know and are able to do, in terms of how their performance matches the standards. Thirdly, it facilitates selection decisions that are fair and defensible.

5.5.2 Assessment Design

The table below shows the assessment design of the subject with effect from the 2012 HKDSE Examination. The assessment design is subject to continual refinement in the light of feedback from live examinations. Full details are provided in the Regulations and Assessment Frameworks for the year of the examination and other supplementary documents, which are available at:

https://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/en/hkdse/assessment/subject_information/category_a_subjects/hkdse_

subj.html?A1&1&2_1

Component Weighting Duration

Public examination

Paper 1 Reading Paper 2 Writing

Paper 3 Listening and Integrated Skills Paper 4 Speaking

20%

25%

30%

10%

1½ hours 2 hours About 2 hours About 20 minutes School-based Assessment (for school candidates only) 15%

5.5.3 Public Examinations

Different types of items are used to assess student performance in a broad range of skills and abilities. The types of items include multiple-choice questions, short questions, more extended open-ended responses and essays. In Paper 3 (Listening and Integrated Skills), candidates are required to process information by selecting and combining data from spoken/written sources in order to complete various listening/writing tasks in practical work or study situations. All the information necessary to complete these tasks is provided. In assessing candidates’ performance in speaking, tasks on group interactions and individual responses will be set.

Schools may refer to the live examination papers regarding the format of the examination and the standards at which the questions are pitched.

5.5.4 School-based Assessment (SBA)

In the context of the public assessment, SBA refers to assessments administered in schools and marked by the students’ own teachers. The primary rationale for the SBA for English Language is to enhance the validity of the speaking assessment by including aspects that cannot be assessed in public examination settings. The focus of the assessment tasks is on the speaking ability of the students, including their ability to discuss issues in depth and to convey their ideas clearly and concisely. Students’ performance in pronunciation and delivery, communication strategies, vocabulary and language patterns and ideas and organisation are assessed.

There are, however, some additional reasons for the inclusion of SBA. For example, it reduces dependence on the results of Paper 4 (Speaking), which may not always provide the most reliable indication of the actual speaking abilities of candidates. Assessments based on student performance over an extended period of time and developed by those who know the students best (i.e. their subject teachers) provide a more reliable assessment of each student’s speaking ability.

Another reason for including the SBA is to promote a positive “backwash effect” on students, teachers and school staff. Within English Language, the SBA can serve to motivate students by requiring them to engage in extensive reading and viewing that helps develop their overall language ability; and for teachers, it can reinforce curriculum aims and good teaching practice, and provide structure and significance to an activity that they are in any case involved in on a daily basis, namely assessing their own students.

The SBA component comprises a reading/viewing programme where students need to read/view two to four texts (“texts” encompass print, non-print, fiction and non-fiction materials) over the course of three years, including at least one print and one non-print texts, and write up some comments and personal reflections on them. The SBA is based on the student’s oral performance.

The reading/viewing/writing only serves as the means to this end and is not assessed.

The detailed requirements, regulations and guidelines are provided in the SBA Handbook for HKDSE English Language published by the HKEAA, which can be accessed via the following weblink: https://www.hkeaa.edu.hk/en/sba/sub_info_sba/dse_subject.html?2&2.

It should be noted that the SBA is not an “add-on” element in the curriculum. The modes of SBA above are normal in-class and out-of-class activities suggested in the curriculum. The requirement to implement the SBA has taken into consideration the wide range of student ability and efforts have been made to avoid unduly increasing the workload of both teachers and students. Detailed information on the requirements and implementation of the SBA and samples of assessment tasks are provided to teachers by the HKEAA.

5.5.5 Standards and Reporting of Results

Standards-referenced reporting is adopted for the HKDSE. Candidates’ levels of performance are reported with reference to a set of standards as defined by cut scores on the mark scale for a given subject. Standards-referencing relates to the way in which results are reported and does not involve any changes in how teachers or examiners mark students’ work. The set of standards for a given subject can be represented diagrammatically as below:

Defining levels of performance via cut scores on the mark scale for a given subject

Within the context of the HKDSE there are five cut scores, which are used to distinguish five levels of performance (1 – 5), with 5 being the highest. A performance below the cut score for Level 1 is labelled as “Unclassified” (U).

For each of the five levels, a set of written descriptors has been developed to describe what the typical candidate performing at this level is able to do. The principle behind these descriptors is that they describe what typical candidates can do, not what they cannot do. In other words, they describe performance in positive rather than negative terms. These descriptors represent “on-average” statements and may not apply precisely to individuals, whose performance within a subject may be variable and span two or more levels. Samples of student work at various levels of attainment are provided to illustrate the standards expected of them. These samples, when used together with the level descriptors, will clarify the standards expected at the various levels of attainment.

In setting standards for the HKDSE, Levels 4 and 5 are set with reference to the standards achieved by students awarded grades of A – D in the Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination. It needs to be stressed, however, that the intention is that the standards will remain constant over time, not the percentages awarded at different levels, as these are free to vary in line with variations in overall student performance. Referencing Levels 4 and 5 to the standards associated with the old grades A – D is important for ensuring a degree of continuity with past practice, for facilitating tertiary selection and for maintaining international recognition. Secure monitoring tests are used to ensure maintenance of standards over time.

The overall level awarded to each candidate is made up of results in both the public examination and the SBA. The SBA results for English Language are statistically moderated to adjust for

Cut scores

Mark scale

U 1 2 3 4 5

differences among schools in marking standards, while preserving the rank ordering of students as determined by the school.

To provide finer discrimination for selection purposes, the Level 5 candidates with the best performance have their results annotated with the symbols ** and the next top group with the symbol *. The HKDSE certificate itself records the overall level awarded to each candidate for the subject and the level for each of the components – Reading, Writing, Listening and Integrated Skills and Speaking.